Presidents need scientific advice. From climate change and pandemics to governing AI and the country's nuclear arsenal, science is at the guts of a variety of foreign and domestic policy challenges reaching the president's desk.
Fortunately for the President – and the nation – the Office of Science and Technology Policy, generally known as OSTP, is situated directly across the South Lawn of the White House within the Executive Office of the President. Led by the Scientific Advisor to the PresidentOSTP serves as a one-stop shop for all things science and innovation on the White House.
The Office of Science and Technology Policy can also be liable for coordinating the federal government's large, decentralized research and development policy system. With dozens of participants Agencies, offices and departments – and 10 with individual R&D budgets exceeding $1 billion per yr – OSTP works to interrupt down silos in government and monitors the health of the country's vast R&D ecosystem.
As a research scientist study the USA Science advisory systemI’m a close observer of OSTP and the President's science agenda. Recently elected President Donald Trump selected Michael Kratsiosthe Chief Technology Officer of his previous administration, as his next scientific advisor and director of the OSTP.
Here's a glance back at OSTP's history, where the science adviser made a difference and the way the office could be organized within the Trump White House.
The Cold War Origins of the Science Advisor
Like many good stories about US science policy, OSTPs starts with Sputnik. Just days after the Soviet Union took the lead within the space race with the launch of Sputnik I and II in 1957, President Dwight Eisenhower upgraded the World War II-era Scientific Advisory Committee to the Science Advisory Committee Presidential Scientific Advisory Committee. The one-word change signaled an increased role for scientists within the White House.

AIP Emilio Segrè Visual Archives, “Physics Today” collection.
The President's Science Advisory Board was enormously influential in the course of the Eisenhower and Kennedy administrations. It helped Create NASA. It led the federal government's response on Rachel Carson's examination of the hazards of widespread pesticide use: “Silent spring“, who launched the trendy environmental movement. And it was the driving force behind it dramatic growth in federal R&D spending within the Sixties.
President John F. Kennedy created The Office of Science and Technology, a predecessor of OSTP, assumes the responsibilities of the Human Resources Committee and responds to the Executive Office's increasing inquiries about how best to fund federal science programs.
The influence of the President's Science Advisory Committee declined within the late Sixtiesburdened by the executive tasks of managing the growing U.S. research and development system and a diminishing role in national security. There were also concerns amongst White House policy advisers that the committee was putting the interests of the scientific community ahead of those of the president. Some viewed the committee as a “science lobby” providing public funding to support higher education.
Tensions between science and politics erupted under President Nixon, fueled by, amongst other things, the Vietnam War. After several committee members publicly spoke out against several of its flagship defense programs, Nixon was abolished In 1973, each the President's Scientific Advisory Committee and the Office of Science and Technology.
The move prompted Congress to act. It was passed with the support of President Gerald Ford National Law on Science and Technology Policy, Organization and Priorities In 1976, the Office of Science and Technology Policy was founded an independent agency inside the White House and cemented the role of scientific advisor within the law. Almost half a century later, that act still stands The nation's only attempt to ascertain a comprehensive national science policy.
The law drafted the unique draft for OSTP, lots of which has been preserved to this present day. OSTP is led by a presidentially appointed, Senate-confirmed director, who serves as scientific advisor, as much as 4 Senate-confirmed deputy directors, and two policy councils: the President's Advisory Council on Science and Technology and the National Science and Technology Council. These boards are organized to work together: PCAST advises; NSTC acts.
With an annual operating budget of $8 million, OSTP is a tiny agency US Government Standards. It employs just two to a few dozen full-time employees. The remaining employees are liable for detailed work from other positions in the manager branch.

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Who has the president's ear?
The Office of Science and Technology Policy is impeached by Congress “to serve as a source of scientific and technological analysis and judgment for the President” and to coordinate the federal government's nearly $200 billion a yr research and development efforts.
The office was criticizedespecially from inside Science policy Communityas a minor player within the White House. It has no real budgetary authority, and the position of the science adviser will depend on how often the president follows its advice.
However, much of what the science advisor does occurs outside of the general public eye. One of the position's most vital jobs has no footprint: scientific advisor kills bad ideas. The science adviser is usually the one voice within the White House fighting to forestall funding for science is cut from the President annual budget request to the congress.

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Nevertheless, the influence of the scientific advisor has been demonstrated on many policies, often closely linked to government priorities. President George HW Bush's science adviser, Allan Bromley, developed The The first country National technology policy, lay the muse stone for the US government's current approach to innovation.
President Bill Clinton's advisers John Gibbons and Neal Lane advocated for it early electric vehicles And nanotechnology.
President George W. Bush's science adviser, Jack Marburger, drove creation forward of the “Science of science policy” as a research discipline that results in this latest knowledge about how science works and the way it advantages the general public.

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John Holdren, President Barack Obama's science adviser, modified his position federal energy And Climate policy.
Biden scientists Eric Lander, Alondra Nelson, Arati Prabhakar and Francis Collins have pushed forward groundbreaking policies semiconductor, public access to government-funded research And AI.

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Scientific advice within the Trump White House
To date, all scientific advisors have been trained scientists. Before serving as U.S. chief technology officer during Trump's first term, Michael Kratsios had executive-level experience Venture capital and political science education.
He's an unconventional alternative, but hardly controversial. Even without a complicated degree in science, technology, engineering or mathematics, Kratsios' selection was publicly announced very So receive from STEM advocacy organizations, an indication of practicality given Trump's unpredictable first term Record of Science And Well-documented disregard of scientific consensus.
Titles matter, especially in Washington. If confirmed by the Senate, Kratsios will function OSTP director in addition to assistant to the president for science and technology, a title that indicates direct access to the president as a senior White House adviser. With Silicon Valley outsized influence In the wake of the Trump transition, Kratsios and OSTP appear poised to reshape America's vision of science and innovation.
image credit : theconversation.com
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